Post navigation

Unlock Awesome Treehouse Rewards!

One week ago we posted a mysterious countdown clock over at teamtreehouse.com and today, that countdown has ended. There was lots of fun speculation as to what it might mean; No, it’s not the Treehouse beta, and no, Chuck Norris is not giving Mega Master Classes.

We’re going to play a game. Are you ready?

November 7th is the launch of Treehouse, our major re-imagining of Think Vitamin Membership, but we can’t do it without your help! So far we’ve posted a few teasers here and there, but we’re ready to start revealing what we’ve been working on.

On teamtreehouse.com you’ll find a progress bar indicating how close we are to launch. Along the progress meter are several unlockable rewards like interface screenshots and videos. You can help move the progress bar forward by doing one of the following two things:

Reply to @treehouse and let us know what features you’d like to see in Treehouse

Reply to @treehouse with suggestions on which topics you’d like us to teach next

We’ll carefully monitor your tweets and update the progress meter. When the meter hits 100% we’ll unveil a special surprise and then launch Treehouse shortly afterwards. Thanks for taking part!

By working together, you can unlock special previews of Treehouse. We’re weaving story and social gaming into Treehouse in a way that hasn’t been really been done before, and the rewards will start to reveal some of those story elements.

This is our first attempt at an ARG, so there may still be a few kinks to work out. Sorry if it came off as us trying to get others to push our product. However, I think once some of the rewards start getting unlocked, it will make more sense. The progress meter just hit 1%, so the first reward isn’t far off now!

I think this is an awful idea, and one that of all companies/services on the planet, y’all are the last to even NEED this.

I am sure it is well-intentioned, but even the copy fails the “awesomeness” test: it reminds us of YOUR awesomeness, not ours. (“unlock awesome rewards!”). ThinkVitamin has always been about making the *user* awesome, not highlighting how awesome YOU are.

I am deeply disappointed to see one of the best examples of a company that both understands and deliverw what REALLY matters — helping users kick ass — resort to the tactics used by the vast wasteland of mediocre products/services/companies who must find ways to keep us “engaged” with superficial activities that are barely concealed marketing manipulations. There are a million better ways to encourage community involvement.

When you claim in your copy, “Using advanced science that we barely understand…”, I will take that sentence at face value and agree… You do not understand. Because if you *did* understand the science, you would realize what a spectacularly bad idea this is. It will produce short-term “engagement” metrics, but at what long-term cost?

Fortunately, ThinkVitamin/Carsonified have built so much that benefits people that you can easily afford the “hit” (though the tweet stream already includes at least one, “love you guys but this is a dick move spam-to-unlock” style comment). What disappoints me is that you guys are a MODEL — as leaders in this space — and you are modeling what some of us (supported by the science) consider an attempt at behavior manipulation disguised as “community engagement.” I DO understand the science, and it is subtle and complex and counter-intuiitive. And it tells me that this is not a good move, though I have no doubt that your heart is in the right place.

Thank you for pointing out the flaws in this plan. As you said, our hearts were in the right place, but our plan was flawed. We were trying to do something fun that also promoted the launch, but we didn’t get the mix right.

You’re right, and we were wrong. We were just trying to have some fun with our launch, but this wasn’t the right way to go about it.

We’ve tweaked the copy on http://teamtreehouse.com to encourage people to reply to @treehouse:twitter on Twitter with ideas for new topics and features that they would like to see from us. Our members fuel our service, and we want to make Treehouse the best place to learn.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about investing in a Think Vitamin membership, for a solo developer its a non trivial expense – then I thought I’d wait to see how Treehouse turned out. Glad I did. I’m keen to purchase professional, mature, adult training – but spam to unlock makes it feel like its a game launch for Facebook. This approach will turn off so many professionals.

Before I even saw your response, Ryan, I was feeling a little bad about my earlier comment. Not because I don’t think this was a mistake, but I suddenly realized that you are out there *trying things* and in many ways, that should take priority. The fact that less than 24 hours later you are already acknowledging you might need to tweak things is partly why we love you

There is a massive difference between, for example, giving someone a reward to acknowledge something they have done *for themselves* (like, say, a badge for completing a training program) and a reward for something they would otherwise have *wanted* to do. Think of it like a “sell-out neuron” in the brain. All those people you have helped are potentially willing to help Treehouse *because they want to.* Incentivizing the very acts we would have taken on your behalf puts us in an awkward, non-kick-ass mode and cheapens what would have been an expression of real appreciation and enthusiasm.

Thanks for calling us out on this! Seriously, now that I see it the way others do, we needed it.

I have updated http://teamtreehouse.com/ with revised copy that puts more focus on the user and not us. Like Ryan said, we were just trying to spice up our launch, because we think learning should be fun! We still have unlockable rewards, but they’re now fueled by user feedback and ideas. We want to make Treehouse the best place to learn, so we’re encouraging people to reply to @treehouse:twitter on Twitter with topics and features they would like to see from us.

I remember attending FOWA Miami 2008 and listening to you talk about the WTF button. I can only help but think about that in this particular case! Hindsight is 20/20, but we messed up, so we’re working now to make it right.

I did a double take with this launch. You guys have a great product (that I pay for), and I don’t think think anything was devious, but it did strike me as really odd that I would have to do something to unlock some *screenshots* of a new service. I was also genuinely looking forward to the launch, and when the countdown went to zero, the big reveal turned out to be… another countdown… a bit anticlimactic from my end. Keep up the good work with the videos, and no real sweat lost on my end.

Thanks for your feedback, it means a lot to us. Sorry to have disappointed you. We’ve updated the copy on http://teamtreehouse.com/ to focus more on user feedback. By replying to @treehouse:disqus on Twitter with your ideas for features and new topics, new rewards will be unlocked and together we’ll make Treehouse the best place to learn.

Thanks for the feedback. We modified the social game so that Twitter replies to @treehouse:twitter now fuel the progress bar, rather than tweeting about us. We want to make Treehouse the best possible place to learn, and we would be nowhere without our members. That’s why we need your ideas for new features and topics!

If you’re considering signing up, there’s really no need to wait. Treehouse will have all of our current video content, plus extras like quizzes and badges. If you have any questions about membership, feel free to email help@teamtreehouse.com and we’ll be happy to assist you!

Hello! We're the teachers here at Treehouse. We produce video courses on everything from web design and web development to iOS and business skills. You can browse our full library of content to find the course that's right for you.

In the meantime, explore the free features, tips, tricks and videos here on our blog. Tell us what you think, we'd love to chat: blog@teamtreehouse.com

Stay Updated

Sign up for our newsletter, and we'll send you news and tutorials
on web design, coding, business, and more! You'll also receive these
great gifts:

checkArt and the Web: Line, Shape, and Form - An eBook by Treehouse Teacher Nick Pettit.

checkOn Freelancing - An audiobook about running your own business by Simon Collison.

Swift is a new programming language created by Apple to program iOS apps. If you are new to programming or to Swift then this course is for you. Learn about programming concepts like: variables, types, collections and control structures.

Ruby is a programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity, and it's used to create some of the biggest websites in the world. Learn how to work with Ruby and write simple Ruby programs in this introductory course.

Interested in creating Android apps? Learn the Java programming language, a tool for Android development called Android Studio, and some very basic concepts of the Android Software Development Kit, or SDK.

Bring your big idea to life! Learn how to start a company on the right foot with an introduction to basic business concepts, including corporate structure, marketing, finance, and accounting. Then you’re ready for more advanced business strategies.